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QUALIFICATION FOR VOTING 


IN THE 


PROVINCIAL CHARTER OP MASSACHUSETTS. 



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QUALIFICATION FOR TOTING 


IN THE 


PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


The qualification of freeholders, or other persons, to have 
a vote in the election of members to represent their respective 
towns in the General Court or Assembly of the Province of 
the Massachusetts Bay, was by the Province Charter a prop¬ 
erty qualification only. 

In the Province Charter, or duplicate original thereof, 
brought over by Governor Phipps, and which arrived at Bos¬ 
ton May 14, 1692, now in the custody of the Secretary of 
the Commonwealth, that qualification is plainly expressed as 
follows; to wit, “ an estate of Freehold in Land within our 
said Province or Territory to the value of Forty shillings per 
annum at the least, or other estate to the value of Forty 
pounds sterling.” 

On the first printing of the charter, in 1692, the other estate 
than freehold in land as the property qualification was put 
at “ Fifty pounds sterling.” On the 30th of November, 1692, 
the General Court passed an act, approved by Governor 
Phipps, establishing precedents and forms of writs and pro¬ 
cesses; and, after the prescribed form for the Governor’s writ 
to the sheriff of each county, requiring the sheriff of each 
county to make out a precept to the selectmen of each town 



2 


PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


in his county, and requiring the selectmen to cause the free¬ 
holders and other inhabitants of their several towns, duly 
qualified, as in and by the charter directed, to assemble, at 
such time and place as the selectmen should appoint, to elect 
one or more persons to represent them in General Court, Ac.,— 
then followed the prescribed form of the sheriff’s warrant to 
tlie selectmen of the several towns in his county in the words 
following ; to wit, — 

“ These are in their majesties names to will and require you forth¬ 
with to cause the freeholders and other inhabitants of your town that 
have an estate of freehold in land within this province or territory 
of forty shillings per annum at the least, or other estate to the value of 
forty pounds sterling, to assemble and meet at such time and place as 
you shall appoint, then and there to elect ” “ one or more persons ” 
“ to represent them in a General Court ” “ to be convened,” &c. 

Upon this act or law being laid before the King in Council, 
the whole act was annulled on Aug. 22, 1695, “because,” in 
the language of the Committee of the Council, “ the sheriff’s 
precept directed other inhabitants worth £40 to elect when 
the charter appointed such inhabitants worth <£50 to elect 
that is, the act or statute assumed to make the property 
qualification of other estate than freehold £10 sterling less 
than the charter or constitution, and hence the act or statute 
was unconstitutional, as we now familiarly say. 

In the editions of the Province laws of 1699, 1714, and 
1726, and in a London edition of the laws of 1724, the prop¬ 
erty qualification other than of freehold in lands is printed in 
the copy of the charter prefixed thereto, as follows ; viz., “ or 
other estate to the value of Fifty pounds sterling”; but in 
.the editions of the Perpetual Laws of 1742 and 1759 (for 
the charter was never prefixed to the editions of the Tem¬ 
porary Laws), the property qualification, other than of free¬ 
hold in lands, is printed in the charter prefixed thereto, as 
follows; viz., “or other estate to the value of Forty pounds 
sterling.” 




PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


3 


Again, in the edition of the more important Colonial and 
Provincial laws, edited by Mr. Dane, Mr. Prescott, and Judge 
Story, and published in 1814, the property qualification of the 
voter, other than of freehold in lands, is printed in the copy of 
the charter prefixed thereto at “forty” pounds sterling. 

A controversy existed between the Provincial politicians 
opposed to the British administration, and the King in Council, 
through their Committee on Trade and Plantations, as to 
whether, by the charter, an inhabitant of the Province, not a 
freeholder, was required to have other estate to the value of 
forty pounds sterling or fifty pounds sterling in value, to 
entitle him to vote. The former insisted that they were 
entitled to go by the very words, “forty pounds sterling,” 
plainly expressed in the charter, in the custody of the Secre¬ 
tary of the Province, and actually signed by the Lords Com¬ 
missioners of the G-reat Seal; the latter insisted that the 
charter required the property qualification, other than estate 
of freehold in lands, to be fifty pounds sterling. 

On looking into a printed copy of the “ Acts and Laws of 
the Province of the Massachusetts Bay,” now in the Public- 
Record Office in London, formerly the State-Paper Office, to 
which the Province Charter is prefixed and certified by Gov¬ 
ernor Bernard, on March 30, 1761, the qualification of the 
electors to vote for a representative reads, as printed, “an 
estate of freehold in land ” “ to the value of Forty shillings, 
per annum, at the least; or other estate to the value of forty 
pounds sterling.” But this, aside from Governor Bernard’s 
certificate, is only what we see prefixed to every copy of our 
editions of the Perpetual Laws, either of 1759 or of 1742. 

In “ Colonial Entry Book,” No. 62, in the Public-Record 
Office, pages 298 and following, there is an entry of said 
charter plainly written, with “ Memorandum,” “ This Charter 
past the Great Seal the 7 th Oct. 1691.” Article 15th (page 
329) says,— 


4 


PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


“ Provided alwaies that noe freeholder or other person shall have a 
vote in the Eleccon of Members to serve in any great and generall 
Court or Assembly to be held as aforesaid, who, at the time of such 
Election, shall not have an Estate of freehold in land within our said 
Province or Territory of the value of fourty shillings per annum at 
the least or other estate to the value of fifty pounds sterling.” 

The original charter of the Province, so called, enrolled on 
the Patent Rolls, and in the Public-Record Office, London, 
has the words, “ or other estate to the value of fifty pounds 
sterling,” clearly and plainly engrossed therein, and has, at 
the end thereof, only these words, viz., “ By Writ of Privy 
Seal ,” without any signature whatever. While the Province 
Charter, brought over by Governor Phipps, has the actual 
signatures of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, yet 
the invariable practice in England was not to have any signa¬ 
ture whatever to the enrolled charters of colonies and prov¬ 
inces kept with the public records at home. 

On turning to the Docquet of the Privy Seal, Signet Book, 
3d William and Mary, it will be seen that the Privy Seal, or 
Warrant, was procured by the Earl of Nottingham, Secretary 
of State, and countersigned by Sir George Treby, then 
Attorney-General of England, Sept. 26, 1691. This Privy 
Seal consists of three skins of parchment, each signed by 
King William and Queen Mary. The words therein, u or other 
estate to the value of fifty pounds sterling ,” are on the first line 
of the centre or second skin of parchment; and, upon inspec¬ 
tion, it is plain that u forty pounds sterling ” was first written, 
and that the word “ forty ” was afterwards altered to “ fifty.” 

Mr. Sainsbury, of the Public-Record Office, from whom 
these particulars were communicated in answer to the inquiries 
of Abner C. Goodell, Esq., of Salem, is of opinion that the 
alteration from “forty” to 11 fifty” was made before the 
King and Queen signed; for, in fact, eleven days afterward, 
namely, on the 7th of October, 1691, the charter passed 
the Great Seal; and the words 11 fifty pounds sterling ” are 
clearly written on the patent roll now in the English archives. 


PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


5 


On turning to Colonial Entry Book, Yol. 62, it plainly ap¬ 
pears that there was some discussion of this particular ques¬ 
tion ; for on page 277 of that record is the following entry: — 

“ Abstract of the Minutes for the Charter of the Massachusetts 
Colony directed at the Committee of Plantations with the report of 
Mr Attorney General.” 


“ That there be a General Court or Assembly to be chosen by the 
Freeholders of 40? per annum and other inhabitants worth 50 each in 
money to meet every year, the last Wednesday in May and oftner, if 
the Governor shall think fitt who may convene, prorogue and dissolve 
them.” 

This record shows that the ownership of personal estate, to 
the value of fifty pounds sterling, by an inhabitant of the 
Province not having a freehold to the value of forty shillings 
sterling, was intended to be the qualification of a voter, and 
that it was so settled by the King in Council before the King 
and Queen actually signed, as before stated. 

The discrepancy as to the words “forty” and u fifty” be¬ 
tween the Province Charter, now in the State House, and the 
enrolled charter in the Public-Record Office, may have arisen 
from a mistake of the clerk in copying from the enrolled 
charter, and not detected in a subsequent comparison. More 
probably, however, in the haste which seems to have charac¬ 
terized this proceeding, the parchment, afterward sent over 
as our charter, was copied from the actual original, that is, 
the Privy Seal parchment, before it was signed by the King 
and Queen, and before the word “ forty ” was changed to 
u fifty,” and of course before the enrolled charter was drafted 
from the corrected instrument signed by their majesties; and 
by accident and mistake sent in that condition and without 
correction to the Province. 

However , the discrepancy may have arisen, the party in 
the Province opposed to British interference, especially during 



6 


PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


the forty years preceding the Revolution, claimed that the 
home government were bound by the words as they were 
plainly written in the charter itself as sent over to us. 

Accordingly, upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1780, 
in chap. 1, sect. 3, House of Representatives, art. 4, the 
qualification of a voter in the choice of a representative of a 
town is “ having a freehold estate of the annual income of three 
'pounds or any estate of the value of sixty pounds .” The pounds 
of the constitution in 1780 were what was then, before and 
afterwards, called lawful money ; and a pound lawful money, 
as every one knows, was three dollars and thirty-three cents 
and one-third. Three pounds lawful money was the same 
sum as forty shillings sterling ; and sixty pounds lawful money 
was the same sum as forty pounds sterling. 

This paper may not be devoid of interest, as it shows the 
history of th*e property qualification of a voter for a repre¬ 
sentative of a town in the General Court of Massachusetts 
under the Constitution of 1780. 













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